Go Ds

I can't show my intimate tattoo on my ahem MFC 'member' here. I wanted the name of every Melbourne player and coach from 21 inked there. Alas I had to leave out the coaches. 😆

She's not speaking just yet; she's got a frog in her throat

Are you Ghosty the Cameraman? Also 🥳 LUKER [censored] KENTBAT 🥳& 🥳 LUKER [censored] KENTBOWL🥳 😛😛😛

@Rodney (Balls) Grinter @DeeZone it's only a feeling - and it's all filtered through media reports as well as comments on here - so it's more "glass half full" than bet half your life savings we make finals. I doubt 11 extra goals a game is likely. If you have a pebble in your shoe it turns out it was a lot smaller than you realised. I think in sport it can be the reverse. A slightly better kicking technique might mean once in each game a behind now is a goal or a player reads the ball slightly better or takes an extra mark in defence and these tiny improvements - wether in defence or attack - help decrease losing margins and / or increase winning ones. Three or four teams almost yearly return to the finals ( replacing mainly disappointing ones). There can be big surprises. Hopefully Melbourne are one next year ( or even better 2027-30 something we're full-on contenders surprising many.)

True @Fanatique Demon But obviously not every side or player improves each year - compromised preseasons, injuries, lowered club morale can all occur - and of course the level of improvement for each individual will vary. IMHO if someone knew almost everything re every team's preseasons the rise and falls on the ladder would rarely surprise.

Such minor improvements across the board i reckon would snowball and make most teams unrecognisable - and turn most into real flag contenders. BTW I'm not predicting it but think about this..... if a team's best 22 or so that makes the field each week have all improved such that they're worth an extra half a goal each that's 11 goals improvement - despite not one single player improving much.

Ooooh! Looks like I'll hafta get an invite to Yvonne and Jeff's for your 60th!

Do you actually know what was in that conversation? I dont. I thought he was told that he'd probably be playing a new position. I hope King didn't go out of his way to raise the possibility of Casey games. But in all honestly ANY player should know theyre not guaranteed senior games and I doubt King was guaranteeing Oliver that he'd get no senior games.

You mean EX-magnet. If he kept playing same as in recent years he weakens a midfield.

Huh? Great teams have players that give their all - training hard, following tactics, playing in positions that suit the team - because it's a team game and team success is the ultimate goal. Sure, if someone's the 26th best player in a brilliant club i can understand them going to another club. But why would someone like Oliver partially put in the hard yards but then lose it over a position change?! Unless he didn't believe in his own ability why wouldn't he just get on with it in a position change, like many others have done, happy to know it'll probably lead to team success (that thing we haven't had in two years). What gives??

Surely it's not just tradition. Wouldn't some club some time experimented with a shorter AFL preseason and learnt the hard way those extra weeks weren't just tradition.

Hmm, I'd say you'd be right. If I'm not mistaken soccer pitches are a lot smaller and matches don't go as long etc meaning fitness demands are a little less exacting . Surely players still get a few weeks completely off and the preseasons hence are a fair bit shorter than AFL ones. I guess if there's nothing like the 9-10 weeks gap AFL players can have from September to November that soccer players never get too rusty or lose much base-level fitness. But if soccer preseasons are maybe 6 or 7 weeks shorter than AFL's would anywhere near as many players surprise as much with skills improvement between seasons? I'd love to know.

I just learnt that the English Premier league goes for 40 weeks a year. In other words they only have 12 weeks for the rest of the year. AFL seems to have 13 weeks off (for the 10 non-finalists) and also a pre- season. Maybe I'm a little off topic but do the English soccer teams have a preseason? Surely their required levels of fitness are not hugely less than in AFL. Oh and if we ever try to have every team play each other twice we would have a similarly long season with the same questions I'm asking here.

Talking of PMs we'd have to go back to the 70s (both here and abroad ) and 80s for Melbourne coaches. Yes?